Melania Trump and Jill Biden Accompany Their Husbands to Pope Francis' Funeral
Trip to Vatican City coincides with National First Ladies Day; scholars spotlight first ladies' contributions.
Abroad, First Lady Melania Trump and former First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, accompanied their husbands Saturday to Pope Francis’ funeral in St. Peter’s Square.
President Donald Trump and his wife, who is Roman Catholic, sat across an aisle from Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron of France where they shook hands. Seated farther away were former President Joe Biden and the former first lady. They joined monarchs, world leaders, heads of state including President Volodymer Zelensky of Ukraine and a royal, Prince William.
Born in Argentina as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis was the first Latin American and the first Jesuit to become Pope when elected in 2013. Taking the name Francis after St. Francis of Assisi, he promoted a more humble version of the papacy than many of his predecessors. He will be buried outside of the Vatican in a simple wooden coffin at the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore.
An ocean away in the rural town of Marshfield, Missouri, presidential descendants and organizers celebrated with visitors the 20th Annual Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival, an eclectic history festival that honors America’s first ladies on Saturday, National First Ladies Day, with a variety of scheduled events. Coincidentally, this year the holiday landed on First Lady Melania Trump’s birthday. She turned 55 on Saturday.
The holiday is recognized on the National Day Calendar and this year is the third year it has been observed. On March 30, 2022, the National Day Calendar in cooperation with the National First Ladies Day Commission (NFLDC) recognized the last Saturday in April as National First Ladies Day. Last year, it was celebrated on Saturday, April 27. The commission is made up of the descendants of first ladies, the Canton-Ohio based National First Ladies Library & Museum, historians, and other stakeholders.
Now, the commission has its sights set on establishing it as a federal holiday. They have reached out to the Trump administration and previously the Biden administration and are working with lawmakers. They are open-minded about how that would take shape. It could be done by executive order or through a presidential proclamation, according to the commission. They are not seeking a non-working holiday, but one that would be federally recognized and inspire education about the contributions of first ladies in tandem with service.
Elsewhere, the First Ladies Association for Research and Education (FLARE) in collaboration with the National First Ladies Library & Museum (NFLLM) this week hosted a virtual program honoring America’s first ladies to coincide with the holiday.
Co-authors of the book Remember the First Ladies: The Legacies of America’s History-Making Women, Diana Carlin, Anita McBride and Nancy Kegan Smith, were featured in the panel discussion “Unsung & Unstoppable: The First Ladies and Facts You Never Knew” moderated by Patty Dowd Schmitz, president and CEO of NFLLM.
The program spotlighted the impact first ladies have on the presidency, their “firsts” and other little known facts.
The scholars spoke about how First Ladies Jacqueline Kennedy, Melania Trump and Eleanor Roosevelt differed with their husbands on certain policies. Mrs. Trump, for example, in her first term, encouraged Americans to wear masks during the COVID pandemic, while the president publicly stated at the time that he was “choosing not to do it.”
Some first lady “firsts” included Dolley Madison as the first, first lady in a combat zone; Helen “Nellie” Taft as the first, first lady to ride to the inauguration with outgoing President Theodore Roosevelt; and Lou Henry Hoover, the first, first lady to have graduated from college with a geology degree.
The entire program can be viewed here.
The Weekly Wrap
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ABC News
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The Associated Press
Watch: Trump and Biden arrive for Pope Francis' funeral in Vatican City
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